Friend has a 62 Chevy PU rat rod he mainly uses to pull car trailer. It now has a 400 small block but he wants to build a big block for it. His current cruising rpm is around 2000-2100 rpm with his gearing and needs to have power in that range not to be downshifting on hills. Looking for a good lumpy cam that still has some power in that range. Engine will be a 9-1 460 with 781 heads, big valves. performer intake, and 850 Holley. He's looking at the Howards 120241-09. Any suggestion for a good sounding cam that makes power in that range?

Wants a lumpy cam and power in the very low 2000 rpm range for trailer towing.
To me that is just a horrible idea.
It is very hard on bearings to pull an engine down to 2000 rpm under a load.
Lumpy cams do not really get into a good cruise set until 500 or more rpm than what you have listed.

Yes you can get by with it but to me it would not be optimum.
I would do a much smaller grind for that RPM something like [email protected] .050 want it to lump a bit then go for a 108 or 106LSA with that duration.

For my towing stuff I like to be in the 2500 rpm minimum area and usually 2800 makes it really sweet with good power and velocity gets up a bit more through the runners and MPG does very well, better than at 2000 rpm.

But I base this on smaller engines than 460"

I did build an 11:1 396 with .060 over bore and large oval heads 2.19-1.88 valves I stuck a [email protected] .050 cam in it with 108LSA and it really is lumpy and pulls very well ..buddy had it in a 3/4 ton truck with 456 gears and TH 400 trans.

It is now in a 1/2 ton after serving a decade of towing duties. Has a tunnel-ram and 2 600's on it now also and he stated it never pulled as hard as it does now.
210 PSI cranking pressure and runs 91 octane.

Many ways to go I suppose but I just never had luck at 2000 rpm.

Sir, giving the above parameters, you're asking for a lot. This is not an application for an off the shelf grind, you need to talk to a cam designer. Chris Straub would be hands down the number one guy I would talk to. He'll tell you whether its doable or not and if he says he can meet your expectations, spend the extra bucks and let him cut the cam for you, it'll be the best few extra bucks you spend on the build.

Thanks for the reply. His heathly small block handles the duty amazingly well, considering the OD gearing.I wouldn't make the change but he is a BBC guy. Howards advertises that cam as making power from 1600. Do you think that is correct?

A 2500 converter is also suggested for that cam. Cam "sound" and torque at 2000 do not go together. I bet he wants decent fuel economy also. He needs to find something 10-15 degrees smaller for what he wants and put sound at the bottom of the list.